Beyond Bullet Points, 3rd Edition by Cliff Atkinson

Author:Cliff Atkinson [Cliff Atkinson]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: COMPUTERS / Desktop Applications / Presentation Software
ISBN: 9780735661738
Publisher: Microsoft Press
Published: 2011-04-18T16:00:00+00:00

Figure 8-4. Aesthetic mismatches for a clipboard.

Tip

The general guidelines for choosing graphics are to keep things as simple and unadorned as possible, and when in doubt, take it out. Review the graphics with other people on your team and gather their opinions to get a range of perspectives to help you choose which graphics work best aesthetically for both you and your audience.

When you’re searching for an aesthetic match between a graphic and your audience, your focus should not be on whether you think a particular graphic is good or bad, but rather on whether a specific graphic will do the job of communicating the point of a specific headline to your specific audience. Scrolling through the search results reveals that many of the graphics probably are an aesthetic mismatch for the audience of the sample presentation in this book. For example, the clip art example of a clipboard on the upper right is done in a cartoon style that might make your message come across as not being as serious as the topic at hand. The clip art example on the lower left includes hands that are marking up the clipboard, but it’s an aesthetic mismatch because the image also is in a cartoon style and comes across as too playful and not aligned with the aesthetic style the audience expects.

Using a photograph of someone holding a clipboard is in the realm of possibility, but this example on the lower right is too whimsical for the context, and it’s also hard to see the clipboard because it is such a small percentage of the screen area. This is a good example of why you need to be careful when using a photograph that has a person in it, especially on a Key Point slide or an Explanation slide. The photo of the person in this example will distract attention away from the point of the headline and prompt thoughts in the viewer’s mind such as, “I wonder if I should know this person,” or “I’ve never seen anyone walk around with thumbs up in our office,” or “I’m personally not a fan of his haircut.” Again, this is not about whether these example graphics are good or bad, because they all would work perfectly well in some other contexts, just not for this audience.

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